1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fill-in light emitting apparatus which can match the color temperature of strobe light of, for example, a still video camera, to the color temperature of ambient light, upon strobe emission.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional still video cameras, white balance adjustment is effected to reproduce a white image of a white object as it is, regardless of the color temperature of illuminating light. For instance, in a known still video camera having a strobe device, the white balance adjustment upon strobe emission is normally controlled in accordance with the color temperature of the strobe light. However, the color temperature of the strobe light emitted from a xenon discharge tube incorporated in the strobe device is high. Consequently, during the white balance adjustment upon the emission of strobe light, blue light is suppressed in a whole image to prevent a reproduced image of a white object from being shifted to blue under the influence of the strobe light.
Nevertheless, in the control mentioned above, if there is illuminating light whose color temperature is different from that of the strobe light, the color distribution of the photographed image tends to be irregular. As an example, in FIG. 13A in which an incandescent light bulb 241 illuminates from above a human object M standing in front of a wall W, the color temperature of the illuminating light emitted from the incandescent light bulb 241 is lower than that of the illuminating light emitted from a strobe device 242, and accordingly, the color of the human object M is correctly reproduced in the taken image, but the color of the wall W which receives less strobe illuminating light than the illuminating light from the incandescent light bulb 241 is shifted to red, as shown in FIG. 13B.
To prevent the reproduction of such unnatural colors, it is known to carry out the white balance adjustment upon the emission of strobe light, in accordance with the color temperature automatically selected from among those of the strobe light and the external light, and a color temperature intermediate between those of the strobe light and the external light, as disclosed for example in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-69185.
However, in the known apparatus as mentioned above, it is difficult to faithfully reproduce colors over a whole image plane, since white balance adjustment is not completely effected for both the light reflected from a subject portion which fully receives the fill-in light (strobe light) and a subject portion which does not, respectively.